To make the daily dishes of your table tasty and original, sometimes just add … Pepper! Or a pinch of other spices. Of course, you can buy one universal seasoning (a mixture of herbs, salt and sodium glutamate in equal proportions), at the price of a “ruble per kilogram”, but it is much more useful, healthier and tastier to use various seasonings and spices for different occasions!
However, if you doubt that you can remember the purpose of two dozen different spices, limit yourself to five universal spices that can be added to almost all dishes.
Pepper: black or white. These are not different varieties of pepper, these are the seeds of one tree Piper Nikrum, processed in different ways.
Black pepper, undoubtedly, king of all spices. Without it – nowhere. The pea of black pepper can be put in any soup, broth, borsch. With ground pepper, feel free to season any meat and vegetable dishes, salads and sauces. Exception for black pepper can be, perhaps, chicken dishes. Coffee gourmets put a little black pepper in coffee – to give a drink a special taste and aroma.
White pepper is valued above black, because its receipt takes more time and effort. It has a more delicate aroma (some, however, it seems unusual and even unpleasant). White pepper is good in soups and meat, but especially in fish and light sauces.
Turmeric (turmeric) – seasoning received from the root of the plant of the same name. A pinch of bright yellow turmeric will give a pleasant aroma and appetizing color of the rice, potatoes, chicken, fish and vegetable broth. Curcum is part of Curry sauce, but if carry is very, very acute, then turmeric has a softer taste. However, if you overdo it, the dish will be bitter and inedible.
In addition to beneficial nutritional properties, turmeric promotes weight loss, improvement of metabolism, is used for joint diseases. From the powder of turmeric, you can make face masks with a cleansing and anti -inflammatory property.
Cinnamon – everyone familiar from childhood spices, excellent filling for butter pies and buns. But not only! In the east of the cook, pieces of cinnamon in oil are fried, on which meat or vegetables will then be fried to give it a special aroma and taste. Ground cinnamon can be added to salads, pork, lamb and birds. The taste of cinnamon goes well with chocolate, pears and apples. Add a pinch of cinnamon to the usual apple charlotte – and the pie will sparkle with new shades of taste and aroma. Add cinnamon and dairy soups, cereals, traditional Slavic drinks, such as a confusion.
One could keep silent about coffee coffee. But suddenly someone has not tried it yet? Add a little cinnamon (better whole, not ground) to Turku – and get fragrant invigorating coffee. And if you have a little cardamom’s grains at home, then the exquisite and unique drink is guaranteed to you.
Kumin is the oldest spice known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, today very popular in the East. Kumin grain (Zira) can be used both in whole and in a hammer. Zira is placed in vegetable dishes, bobe dishes, rice, lamb, chicken and fish, soups and broths. Without it, you cannot prepare a real fragrant Uzbek pilaf. Kumin is part of the famous Indian sauce Curry, along with the above -mentioned turmeric. Cumin removes slags from the body, is used for abdominal pain, kidney diseases.
Muscator is one of the main spices of Indian cuisine, the second, perhaps, after turmeric. Ground nutmeg is added to dishes of meat, poultry, in vegetable stews and soups, meat broths, in seafood dishes and fish. Muscular nuts give a special aroma to confectionery: pies, cupcakes, puddings.